Council Urges Hunters to Take Extra Care When 'Spotlighting'

Mountain Safety Council Urges Hunters to
Take Extra Care When 'Spotlighting'

The spotlighting
incident resulting in the injury of a 17-year-old hunter in
Southland on Monday highlights the need for hunters to take
extra care when shooting at night.

There have been three
deaths and two injuries from spotlighting incidents
involving deer hunters in the past two decades, suggesting
that these are rare events.

However, Tracy Wakeford from
the NZ Mountain Safety Council Firearms Programme emphasised
that no deaths or injuries with firearms are acceptable and
all are avoidable if firearms users follow the 7 basic rules
of firearms safety.

‘Spotlighting is a legitimate and
legal means of hunting game animals and can be done safely
providing hunters follow all of the 7 basic rules and of
firearms safety at all times,’ said Mrs Wakeford.

THE
FIREARMS SAFETY CODE: Seven Basic Rules of Safe Firearms
Handling

1. TREAT EVERY FIREARM AS LOADED- Check
every firearm yourself.- Pass or accept only an open or
unloaded firearm.

2. ALWAYS POINT FIREARMS IN A SAFE
DIRECTION- Loaded or unloaded, always point the muzzle
in a safe direction.

3. LOAD A FIREARM ONLY WHEN
READY TO FIRE - Load only the magazine
after you reach your shooting area. - Load
the chamber only when ready to shoot. -
Completely unload before leaving the shooting area.

5. CHECK YOUR FIRING
ZONE - THINK! What may happen if you miss
your target? What might you hit between you and the target
or beyond? - Do not fire when you know
others are in your firing zone.

6. STORE
FIREARMS AND AMMUNITION SAFELY - When not
in use, lock away the bolt, firearm and ammunition
separately. - They should be out of the
reach of children, out of view and in a secure room, rack or
cabinet approved by a Police arms
officer. - Never leave firearms
unattended.7. AVOID ALCOHOL AND DRUGS WHEN
HANDLING FIREARMS - Good judgement is the
key to safe use of firearms.

The New Zealand Mountain
Safety Council (MSC) is a national organisation with a
mandate from our member organisations to encourage safe
participation in land-based outdoor activities. We
facilitate the setting of standards, offer training and
education opportunities, create and distribute resources,
lead public awareness campaigns and foster positive support
in the community so that more people can discover and enjoy
New Zealand’s outdoors safely. Our outcome is ‘more
people participating safely in land-based outdoor
activity’.

FIREARMS SAFETYMSC has the sole mandate
from Police to deliver firearms safety training and
administer a test to every firearms licence applicant as
part of Regulation 14 of the Arms Regulations Act 1992. More
than 9000 applicants, in 147 locations receive this training
from a network of more than 480 volunteer firearms
instructors annually.

MSC also produces pamphlets,
manuals and DVDs to promote firearms safety, collaborates
with Iwi (Whakatūpato initiative), creates and supports key
messaging to the public and actively collaborates across the
sector in a bid to reduce non-intentional firearms
incidents.

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